This invention relates to a method and apparatus for separating air.
The most important method commercially for separating air is by rectification. A frequently used method of separating air by rectification includes steps of compressing a stream of air, purifying the resulting stream of compressed air by removing from it water vapor and carbon dioxide, and cooling the resulting purified stream of air by heat exchange with returning product streams to a temperature suitable for its rectification. The rectification is performed in a so-called "double rectification column" comprising a higher pressure and a lower pressure rectification column. Most if not all of the air is introduced into the higher pressure column and is separated into oxygen-enriched air and nitrogen vapor. Nitrogen vapor is condensed. Part of the condensate is used as liquid reflux in the higher pressure column. Oxygen-enriched liquid is withdrawn from the bottom of the higher pressure column, is sub-cooled and is introduced into an intermediate region of the lower pressure column through a throttling or pressure reduction valve. The oxygen-enriched liquid is separated into substantially pure oxygen and nitrogen products in the lower pressure column. These products are withdrawn from the lower pressure column and form the returning streams against which the incoming air is heat exchanged. Liquid reflux for the lower pressure column is provided by taking the remainder of the condensate from the higher pressure column, sub-cooling it, and passing it into the top of the lower pressure column through a throttling or pressure reduction valve.
Conventionally, the lower pressure column is operated at pressures in the range of 1 to 1.5 bar absolute. Liquid oxygen at the bottom of the lower pressure column is used to meet the condensation duty at the top of the higher pressure column. Accordingly nitrogen vapor from the top of the higher pressure column is heat exchanged with liquid nitrogen in the bottom of the lower pressure column. Sufficient liquid oxygen is able to be evaporated thereby to meet the requirements of the lower pressure column for reboil and to enable a good yield of gaseous oxygen product to be achieved. The pressure at the top of the higher pressure column and hence the pressure to which the incoming air is compressed are arranged to be such that the temperature of the condensing nitrogen is about one degree Kelvin higher than that of the boiling oxygen in the lower pressure column. In consequence of these relationships, it is not generally possible to operate the higher pressure column below a pressure of about 5.5 bar.
Improvements to the air separation process enabling the higher pressure column to be operated at a pressure below 5.5 bar have been proposed when the oxygen product is not of high purity, containing, say, from 2 to 20% by volume of impurities. U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,343 discloses that when such lower purity oxygen is required, rather than having the above-described link between the lower and higher pressure columns, air is employed to boil oxygen in the bottom of the lower pressure column in order both to provide reboil for that column and to evaporate the oxygen product. The resulting condensed air is then fed into both the higher pressure and the lower pressure column. A stream of oxygen-enriched liquid is withdrawn from the higher pressure column, is passed through a throttling valve and a part of it is used to perform the nitrogen condensing duty at the top of the higher pressure column.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,210,951 also discloses a process for producing impure oxygen in which air is employed to boil oxygen in the bottom of the lower pressure column in order both to provide reboil for that column and to evaporate the oxygen product. In this instance, however, oxygen-enriched liquid from an intermediate region of the lower pressure column is used to fulfil the duty of condensing nitrogen vapor produced in the higher pressure column.
Although the processes described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,343 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,210,951 make possible some measure of reduction in the ratio of the operating pressure of the higher pressure column to the operating pressure of the lower pressure column when the oxygen product is not pure, a further improvement would be particularly desirable. The present invention relates to methods and plants for separating impure oxygen from air which are intended to meet this need.